European stocks down on broad front, Barclays leads European shares fell on a broad front yesterday, with retailers such as Zara clothing chain owner Inditex hit in particular by economic data showing weakness in the euro zone.

Mining stocks were hammered by signs of weakening demand from emerging countries. US hedge fund Ospraie Management, 20 per cent owned by Lehman Brothers, said on Tuesday it would close its flagship fund after it plunged on energy and mining-related losses.

Banks remained weak, led by Barclays, which was the top loser in Europe's top-50 index with a loss of 4.5 per cent after an RBS downgrade to "sell" from "hold".

RBS said Barclays may need to raise between £4.9 billion and £7.5 billion to bring its capital ratio in line with its peers.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.